Reclaiming apparatus



July 2, 1957 Filed April 28, 1954 C. L. HUNTZINGER RECLAIMING APPARATUS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR {M QM M I ATTORNEYS United States PatentO RECLAIIVIIN G APPARATUS Charles L. Huntzinger, Red Hill, Pa., assignor to Hewitt- Robins Incorporated, Stamford, Conn., a corporation of New York Application April 28, 1954, Serial No. 426,136

3 Claims. (Cl. 214-) This invention relates generally to the handling of ore, coal and similar material requiring to be made available for use in a substantially uniform, blended condition representing an average of the varying assays of incoming supplies of the material.

As heretofore commonly practiced, an appropriate method for making the material so available involves two 7,

major steps, referred to, respectively, as layering and reclaiming. The layering step involves the laying out of the incoming material in a multitude of successive and superimposed layers to build up a large pile. The reclaiming step involves the use of some sort of apparatus which operates to remove material progressively from the end face of the pile in successive slices or cuts, every such slice or cut necessarily comprising an average or blend of a short, horizontal length of all of the layers in the pile. The remainder of the reclaiming step involves the disposition and feeding-off of the material so removed.

The object of the present invention is to improve the reclaiming apparatus and in particular the handling of the material after it has been brought down from the end face of the pile, to the end of facilitating and reducing the cost of installation of the apparatus and minimizing various difficulties heretofore encountered.

The invention will be readily understood from the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a partially-sectioned schematic elevation of the preferred form of the apparatus;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged vertical section on the line 2--2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a vertical section on the line 33 of Fig. 2; and

Fig. 4 is a further enlarged section on the line 44 of Fig. 3.

Referring preliminarily to Fig. 1, it will be noted that the entire apparatus is mounted at or above the natural ground level, indicated at 1. At the left is a belt conveyor, generally designated 2. This conveyor can be of any preferred construction and, as will be understood, is arranged to extend alongside the usual pile of layered material (not shown). Spaced from the conveyor and extending parallel to it is a curb 3 upstanding somewhat above ground level and, to the right, a second similar curb 4. These curbs likewise extend throughout the length of the pile of material to be reclaimed. Rails 5, paralleling the curbs and conveyor, form a track for the wheels 6 of reclaimer car 7.

The reclaimer car is provided with any suitable form of harrow 10 which, as the car is advanced along its tracks, attacks the end face of the pile of layered material, bringing it down to the foot of the harrow, whence it is moved laterally and up onto the conveyor for delivery to its destination. This movement of the material is effected by a chain conveyor which extends across the reclaimer car, that is, transversely of the length of the belt conveyor, the chain 11 carrying a series of scraper plow elements 12 having depending front portions 13. The drive for this chain conveyor is indicated diagrammatically at 14 in Fig. 2. The harrow construction forms no part of the present invention and it and its mounting on the reclaimer car may be conventional (as shown, for example, in the Andrada Patent No. 2,171,528).

Extending across the reclaimer car from curb to curb is what for convenience will be referred to as an openfaced trough, consisting of a back wall 15 and a bottom wall 16 (Fig. 2) the latter having a downward slope and being entirely above the tops of the curbs. As will be understood, the main portions of the plough elements, which lie close to the walls 15, 16 scrape the material brought downby the harrow along this open-faced trough.

At one side or end of the reclaimer car there is attached to it an upwardly and outwardly inclined trough extension, generally designated 17 in Fig. 3. As shown in Fig. 4, this trough is of more or less U-shaped section, the back and bottom walls 18, 19 being extensions of the walls 15, 16. The front of the trough extension is formed by wall 20. This front wall and the supplementary bottom wall 21, which accommodates the plough portions 13, terminate (at the foot of the slope) just short of the curb 3, with the top surface of the trough bottom coinciding with or preferably slightly below the top edge of the curb.

At the top of the incline the extension trough 17 is suitably arranged in discharge relationship to the belt of the conveyor 2 and preferably, as illustrated, there is provided an intervening hopper 25 which serves to guide the material discharged from the trough on to the conveyor belt. The illustrated hopper is provided with wheels 26 running on rails 27 which parallel the belt conveyor and an arm 28 projecting from the hopper structure is suitably latched to the reclaimer car, as to the arm 29, so that the hopper is advanced by and with the reclaimer car.

As will be understood, the path ofthe lower or active run of chain 11 is determined generally by its sprockets 35, 36 which are so located as to guide the plow elements (assuming they are moving toward the left in Fig. 3) over but close to the top of curb 3 and then up the trough 17. Within the trough, the path of the chain and hence of the plow elements is further defined by fixed rails 37 which are engaged with yoke members 38 carried by the chain.

It has been found that, by locating the trough as described, the reclaimed material can be effectively scraped into and up the trough and with a minimum of risk of any jamming of the chain conveyor or breakage of its plough elements. Also, since the entire apparatus can conveniently be mounted above ground, its installation is facilitated and the expense and ditficulties hereto encountered, when some of the apparatus was arranged to operate within a tunnel or channel below ground level, are avoided.

In the form of reclaimer car illustrated and as is preferred, the right hand side or end (as viewed in Fig. 1) is of the same construction as that already described and the chain conveyor drive 14 is arranged to be reversible, so that the reclaimer car can as well operate to feed to a belt conveyor 40 on the right as to the belt conveyor 2 on the left.

As will also be understood, the curbs 3 and 4 serve to confine a bed 41 of any suitable aggregate material which, when compacted, serves as a base over or across which the reclaimed material is scraped by the plow elements.

In the light of the foregoing description, the following is claimed:

1. Reclaimer apparatus comprising the combination of a belt conveyor located and operating above ground level; a curb extending parallel to the conveyor and prot 3 jecting above the level of the ground on the conveyor side of the curb; a wheeled reclaimer car supported on rails paralleling the curb and the conveyor; mounted on thecar adjacent one end thereof, a generally U-shaped trough inclining upwardly and outwardly of the car from a point below but closely adjacent the top of the curb on the conveyor'side thereof to a point above and in discharge relationship to the upper run of the conveyor belt; also mounted on the car transversely of the conveyor, an endless chain conveyor incorporating a chain .and plurality of scraper plow elements carried thereby;

which the said plow elements operate prior to entering the said trough; guide rails associated with the trough and carried by the chain yoke members for engagement with said rails to guide the chain and plough elements during their passage through the trough.

2. Reclaimer apparatus comprising the combination of a belt conveyor located and operating above ground level;

a curb extending parallel to the conveyor and projecting above the level of the ground on the conveyor side of the curb; a wheeled reclaimer car supported on rails paralleling the curb and the conveyor; mounted on the car adjacent one end thereof, a generally U-shaped trough inclining upwardly and outwardly of the car from a point below but closely adjacent the top of the curb on the conveyor side thereof to a point above and in discharge relationship to the upper run of the conveyor belt; also mounted on the car transversely of the conveyor, an endless chain conveyor incorporating a plurality of scraper plow elements and sprockets for the conveyor chain lo cated to guide the plow elements along a horizontal run, over and in close' proximity to the top of the curb and then up the trough; a second curb spaced from and paralleling the first on the side thereof remote from the conveyor, the said curbs adapted to confine a bed of material to form a base over which the said plow elements operate prior to entering the said trough.

3. The combination of claim 2 in which the endless chain is provided with a reversible drive and in which the reclaimer car is provided with an oppositely disposed second trough inclining upwardly and outwardly of the car from a point closely adjacent the outer edge of the said second curb.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

